Open Hack Day: Screenshot Preview of Yahoo Application Platform

Yahoo Open Hack Day is keeping on. After a night of dancing to the fusion band Girl Talk, over 300 developers will be hacking their way into the new Yahoo Application Platform (YAP) — only to have it turned off on Monday.

YAP is a sneak peek to a final forthcoming version — exact date unknown. This weekend gives attendees the chance to play around with the new technology and provide feedback to Yahoo developers on hand during the course of the event.

YAP is a new platform by Yahoo to securely host and share small internet web applications on Yahoo, or utilizing Yahoo’s user base. The technology incorporates elements of its new social API and its association with Open Social gadget platform.

You have to be on campus to check out the new hosting features, but here are some screenshots to whet your appetite.

Creating a new application using YAP. Applications are built on top of OAuth (open authentication) instead of Yahoo profiles, a nice developer friendly touch.

Although it wasn’t built out yet, the pull-down menu suggests Yahoo will allow you to port your web application to a desktop app.

There are two options when building a Yahoo app: Small View and Full View. Yahoo will securely host your web application with caveats (sorry, no JavaScript) — making it more of a widget/gadget-like platform. Full view applications are hosted on your web server, and Yahoo will provide a wrapper to integrate social and developer friendly functions. YAP uses a security wrapper called to protect users from malware.

The Full View application gets linked to in the URL, the Small View application gets pasted in PHP to the text box. To set the application live, set the status from “Dev” to “Live.” You should be able to add your applcation to Yahoo properties like MyYahoo.